Long-term side effects can include: Breast changes: The breasts may shrink or become more dense after radiation. Some women have reported problems breastfeeding. Brachial plexopathy: Radiation to the breast or chest wall can sometimes damage the nerves that run through the arm, wrist, and hand.
In time radiotherapy can cause the breast tissue to change shape or shrink in size a little. This can happen to your natural breast tissue or a reconstructed breast. After radiotherapy, the breast might feel hard and less stretchy. This is due to a side effect called radiation fibrosis.
You may have aches, twinges or sharp pains in the breast or chest area. These are usually mild. They may continue for months or years, but they usually become milder and less frequent over time. You may also have stiffness and discomfort around the shoulder and breast or chest area during and after treatment.
your skin might feel different to touch. your hair might grow back a different colour or texture in the treatment area. you might have permanent hair loss within the treated area. you might develop red spidery marks on your skin (telangiectasia) caused by small broken blood vessels.
Healthy cells that are damaged during radiation treatment usually recover within a few months after treatment is over. But sometimes people may have side effects that do not improve.
The pain is usually caused by bruising, stretching or damage to nerves during surgery or when scar tissue forms.
These delayed effects can include serious problems such as memory loss, stroke-like symptoms, and poor brain function. You may also have an increased risk of having another tumor in the area, although this is not common. Talk with your cancer care team about what to expect from your specific treatment plan.
Over an average follow-up of five years, the study revealed that the rate of breast cancer recurrence in the same breast was 2.3% in women who skipped radiation after lumpectomy and took endocrine blockers instead — the same rate expected with radiation use, which was impressive, Dr. Tung says.
Traditionally, this radiation “boost”—which helps reduce the risk that the cancer will come back (recur) in that breast—has been given after 3–5 weeks of radiation, given every weekday, to the whole breast.
For many patients undergoing radiation therapy, their immune systems will not be affected by radiation therapy. This is because radiation is focused on specific targets in the body and can be designed to avoid the bone marrow which is where cells that make up the immune system are produced.
You will probably be able to go back to work or your normal routine in 1 to 3 weeks. It may be longer, depending on the type of work you do and whether you are having radiation or chemotherapy. You may shower 24 to 48 hours after surgery, if your doctor okays it. Pat the incision dry.
You can lower your risk by getting radiation therapy afterward. You have a 3% to 15% chance of breast cancer recurrence within 10 years with this combined treatment. Based on genetic testing, your provider may recommend additional treatments to further reduce your risk.
External radiotherapy does not make you radioactive, as the radiation passes through your body. The radiation from implants or injections can stay in your body for a few days, so you may need to stay in hospital and avoid close contact with other people for a few days as a precaution.
Often the side effects are worse at the end of treatment, or even a week or two afterwards, because it takes time for the healthy cells to recover from radiation. Most side effects are temporary and go away in time, usually within a few weeks of treatment finishing.
Nerve pain after mastectomy or lumpectomy
Over time, the injured nerves heal, and the pain usually goes away. In rare cases, nerve damage can lead to a persistent burning or shooting pain around the surgical scar and/or in the underarm area on the affected side.
INTRODUCTION. Postmastectomy pain syndrome (PMPS) is a type of chronic neuropathic pain disorder that can occur following breast cancer procedures, particularly those operations that remove tissue in the upper outer quadrant of the breast and/or axilla [1-5].
Some sources of the radiation stay in the body for only a short time. Others, like seeds and radioactive medicines stay in the body forever. But the radiation gets weaker and is used up over time. Internal radiation does make you radioactive for a short time.
They concluded that “Median life expectancy decreased with increasing radiation dose at a rate of about 1·3 years per Gy, but declined more rapidly at high doses.
Does Radiation Oncology Have Fewer Side Effects Compared to Chemotherapy? Radiation oncology and chemotherapy are both effective cancer treatments; however, they are different in many ways. Radiation oncology is localized: it targets only the affected area of the body, and therefore, tends to have fewer side effects.